Anchoring Our Lives in God's Unchanging Truth

You know, I thought about it this week that actually we're dealing with two different kinds of pandemics. One of them is the physical disease, and the other is the emotional and spiritual dis-ease, emotional spiritual dis-ease that comes with all the radical changes in your life that have taken place these past months. [00:32:04]

Now, the professionals in healthcare, they can tell you how to avoid the disease. But I can tell you how to avoid the dis-ease, the negative emotions that we've all felt from the stress of this pandemic. Now, we don't know how long this is gonna last. But God has not left us without help and without hope. [00:70:66]

Everyone who pays attention to my word and puts it into practice, is like a wise person who built his house on a solid rock. On a solid rock foundation. He said, those are the people who listen to my word and do what I say. They build their house on a solid rock foundation. [06:15:60]

Now, when you think about this, the rains attack your roof, they attack you, they come down from the top, the winds attack your windows, and your walls on the side, and the floods, attack your foundation. You know today in your life right now, there are three kinds of forces that are beating on you and they're trying to tear up your life and your relationships and tear them all apart. [07:38:08]

Now, the only way to make it through these storms is to be anchored and fixed and attached to something rock solid that is unchanging. And I'm here to tell you today that there's only one thing on this planet that's never going to change. Everything else is gonna change. But there's one thing on this planet, that's never gonna change, the truth of God's word, because truth is always true. [08:21:65]

So how do you anchor your life in a way to give you stability when the inevitable storms come? I have here on this table, different kinds of anchors that I've picked up from mountaineers, from rock climbers, and their different kinds of anchors to anchor themselves to the rock. I wanna talk to you about how you do that in your life. [05:25:52]

You know, in the Bible, there's a very short little book called The Book of James. And it was written to people who were under enormous stress, they were actually in a crisis. As I pointed out in an earlier message in the series, the Roman Empire began a period of severe persecution, and people's lives were just turned upside down. [01:30:34]

Now, I said the book of James is a very short book, it's only 108 verses, but it is jam packed with practical guidance, specifically on how to counteract 16 common, negative emotions that people always typically feel in a crisis. And that's why I'm calling this series A Faith That Works When Life Doesn't. [02:41:92]

If you keep looking intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, this is the truth that sets us free. And you continue to do this, not forgetting what you've learned, but doing it, he just gave me four actions right there. He says, or five, he says, you will be blessed in whatever you do, hang on there. [22:25:62]

Now, I wanna recommend a habit to you that I want you to try for the next seven days, okay? Okay, and if you'll do this, I guarantee you, it's gonna change your life. It's a very simple habit. But I want you to do it every day, morning and night for the next seven days, is called His Word First And His Word Last or His Word, First Word, His Word, Last Word. [25:18:75]

Now, nothing will do more to strengthen your spiritual life and give you the stability of having your life anchored to the rock, as Jesus said, than memorizing the scripture. You said, I can't do that. Yeah, you can. You say, well, I can't remember anything. You remember what's important. [28:22:21]

During this pandemic, you may not feel very strong. You may not feel very powerful, but you can be wise. And the wise thing to do is to anchor your life on the rock of God's unchanging truth. The Bible. Let me close by reading again what Jesus said, we started with this passage I wanna end with it. [34:51:99]